Page 24 of Book Bae

“Breathe. All things happen for a reason, Myr-Myr. You know this.”

“You sound like Mommy.”

My mother had just left to head back to work. She worked here at Cherokee Springs University Medical Center, and when she learned that I had checked in, she immediately rushed to where I was. Last weekend, I finally broke the news about my pregnancy to my parents and brother. They were shocked to learn that I had gotten pregnant without the IUI procedure, and all of them wondered if it was Tyrus’s baby.

I told them that he and I had broken up, and it wasn’t his baby. My mother was the only one who was aware that I had been a virgin, so she was especially shocked. My father and brothers weren’t in my personal business like that, but they did want to know who the father was. I simply told them he was a very special friend that they would meet soon. That part was a lie because I had no intention on introducing Micaiah to my family.

Symone had come to the hospital to relieve Mommy, who hadn’t wanted to leave my side, but she needed to get back to work. My mother was the chief human resources officer for the hospital, and they happened to be having a job fair today and tomorrow, so she couldn’t afford to be away for too long.

“I’m just being reasonable. Once they get your fluids up to an acceptable level and make sure that you and the baby are good, they will release you.”

I had been hospitalized for dehydration.

“That’s just it. Why do they have to keep me overnight? It’s still early enough that I should be able to be released today.”

“Have you talked to your mom about it?”

“She was on their side,” I replied dryly and flipped back over to face Symone. “The whole time she kept pestering me about my baby’s daddy and why he wasn’t here by my side.”

Symone shook her head. “Honey, please call that man before you have regrets.”

I sighed and pulled up my phone. I immediately went to his profile on Sociogram, Micaiah Livingstone. As I did the first time that I looked him up, I scrolled through the pictures of him with authors and literary industry personnel.

“Let me see him.”

I handed the phone to Symone, and she folded her lips in with her thumb and index finger. A little crease formed between her eyebrows as she frowned. “He’s cute. Damn, Myr, you didn’t tell me the brother was this fine. Hey, sexy baby daddy.”

“Gimme that!” I snatched my phone from her.

“He looks familiar. I think I must have seen him around the conference a time or two. Either way, with him being security, maybe he works for a company that has contracts with those conferences, and it allows him to travel,” she reasoned.

“Maybe. I just don’t know what I’m going to say. Hey, Micaiah. This is the woman who begged you to take her virginity and said she wanted nothing beyond that night. Well, surprise. I wanted more because guess what? I’ve got your baby.”

“Just tell him that you would like to see him again. There is something you want to discuss in person.”

“Nothing screams red flag worse than that. The man might think I’m calling to tell him I’ve got some incurable disease or something.”

“I doubt it.”

I sighed and twisted my lips as I typed out a message in his DM. I read aloud as I typed. “Hi, I know you may not remember me, but I’m the girl from the Books, Baes & Besties book conference who you saved in the middle of a meltdown. Anyway, I know we didn’t make plans to stay in touch and decided to let that weekend be what it was, but I would like to see you. There’s something I want to discuss, and it needs to be in person.”

“Girl, give me that phone so I can type out the right message,” she stated, reaching for my phone.

“No.”

“Girl, give me that phone.”

She reached for the phone again and tried to wrestle it from my hands. It wasn’t until I heard the familiar funny ring that I realized my thumb had accidentally pressed call.

“Look what you made me do.” I groaned and quickly ended the call. “It’s not your phone, Symone. Besides, while I appreciate your input, this isn’t your situation. You can’t just take my phone and control what I do or don’t say. My message was just fine. Now I don’t even know if I should have reached out at all. That man didn’t sign up for this. I asked him for a special night, and he gave me that. He wore protection. This went all wrong.”

“Well, evidently, it was meant to be because protection or not, you’re five months pregnant with the man’s baby.”

My phone rang back with the funny ringtone, and my eyes popped open wider. I glanced down to see that not only had he read the message that I could no longer delete, but he was calling back too.

My eyes flew to Symone’s and I hissed, “What should I do?”

“Answer it.”